


Playing Nurse and Intern

by frankenbolt



Category: Shock Treatment (1981)
Genre: Dissociative Identity Disorder, F/M, Identity Issues, Reality TV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-09
Updated: 2019-02-16
Packaged: 2019-10-25 03:54:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,252
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17717576
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frankenbolt/pseuds/frankenbolt
Summary: They aren't sure who they are anymore...but at least they're not alone.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Because I feel personally victimised how two minor characters can been so ridiculously hot together.

They’d been hired at the same time.

 

Ansalong, as her new role was called, hadn’t thought much of him at first. She’d been too busy getting into the head space of being a Nurse. Sure, “Dentonvale” didn’t exactly call for in depth character work. But she’d only really modelled before. This show was supposed to boost her careers in ways she’d never dreamed of.

 

And of course it did. If you could call the existential nightmare of being watched for every moment of everyday by thousands of cameras a boost.

 

Over time she felt her old life shedding away. It was getting harder to recall a moment she wasn’t expected to be a loose and ditzy nurse, and who she had been before she’d donned the uniform. She wondered if the Doctors had drugged them. Slipped something into the water, or done something with the lights to help them to forget.

 

As the months and years dragged on, she found herself caring less and less.

 

She got the impression that Ricky had only meant to be a small time part. But after a while, it became clear the crowd couldn’t get enough of him. His brief appearances on the show, ferrying “patients” from other sets to “Dentonvale” caused cheers and applause louder than anything else on the show. He was quickly bumped up to from walk on roles to being more involved in the action, documenting “evidence” for the doctors on that camera of his.

 

Which meant Nurse Ansalong found herself sharing screen time with Rest Home Ricky.

 

“They sure do make a cute couple!”

 

“Oh honey they aren’t a couple, they’re just standing next to each other.”

 

“Maybe they oughta nudge ‘em closer together!”

 

Ansalong shared a look with Ricky, the split second warning enough for the two of them to improvise a response to the crowd of Denton. Warming up the crowd brought in higher approval ratings. Higher approval ratings meant better parts later in the season.

 

The Nurse flashed a big bright smile at the Intern, popping her hip and tossing her long ponytail over one shoulder. “Sure sounds like an idea, huh Ricky?”

 

Ricky didn’t miss a beat, leaning over the audience member currently strapped into the wheelchair between them. “Well Gee, Nurse Ansalong, whatdya say to a stroll around the sanitorium after lights out?”

 

Another shrill giggle and the Nurse lightly bopped him on the chin. “As long as the Doctors don’t find out, huh?”

 

The crowd ate it up.

 

It became a running gag during ad breaks. They were able to anticipate what the other was going to say, and they never took it too far. Ansalong began to actually look forward to flirting with Ricky. It felt good to finally have something she had some control over.

 

But of course...when the camera’s attentions were elsewhere, they were still hyper aware of being watched. So they daren’t talk about it. Sometimes their eyes would meet in the stiflingly silent dining room of “Dentonvale”, but she saw the warning in his eyes. 

 

She found a note under her pillow that night.

 

Well.

 

A drawing.

 

A crudely drawn nurses cap, a heart, and a bow tie.

 

She’d replaced it under her pillow, and pulled the covers up over her head, her hand clutched around the note, a small and genuine smile pulling at her lips.

 

 

Two days later they were standing before the Doctors in their office.

 

“It seems the two of you have been padding your roles.”

 

Cosmo didn’t look happy. But again, Ansalong wasn’t sure he ever looked happy unless he was inflicting pain.

 

She chanced a look at Ricky, who’s breathing was stuttering. But he held her gaze.

 

Nation spoke up, her accent curling thickly over her amusement. “I think it’s rather sweet.”

 

“Sister, dear...do you not think it detracts from the content of the show? Dentonvale is about Science after all.”

 

“Brother, I think you’re failing to consider the ratings. The numbers have been rounding out far better since they started their...flirtation.” Nation leaned forward, tapping her pen against the desk. “I think it’s time they moved to the next level.”

 

“The next level?”

“You two are to share a room from now on.” Nation waved her hand, dismissing them. “Ricky, you are to move into Ansalong’s room. Quickly now, before this evening’s episode.”

 

The Nurse and the Intern had long learned not to dwaddle when it came to the Doctors and their orders.

 

Ricky arrived at her door not too long after that, with only his camera and the two sets of his only costume to slide into her closet.

 

They’d sat on the bed awkwardly together, his long legs seeming comical to her, if only because they looked so out of place in the white of her room.

 

“I’m...sorry you know.”

 

She blinked, looking up at him. He’d taken his bow tie off and was twisting it in his hands. His voice sounded softer. And distinctly not american. Her heart did a flip in her chest.

 

“Wh...why?”

 

He looked over at her. “You...that’s...that’s your real voice?”

 

She felt tears welling up in her eyes, and nodded. “I haven’t..heard it in a long time. My voice I mean...you...you’re not--”

 

“They told me I needed to put on an accent to get the gig.”

 

“They told me the same thing!” She frowned and gruffed her voice up as much as she could. “Yeh have the right look, doll, but Yeh ain’t down under no more.”

 

Ricky let out a hysterical giggle, turning to face her more fully on the bed, and she was endeared by how honest it actually sounded. “That’s great! I mean, not what they told you, obviously, the bastards. I much prefer your real accent.”

 

“Oh, you’re a limey prick aren’t you?”

 

“Don’t you get smart with me, sheila!”

 

“Oh god, you know we’re not all called that--”

 

“So go on then, what’s your real name.”

 

Her smile dropped, and he clucked his tongue, still fiddling with his bowtie. “Me either.”

 

They’d fallen asleep talking, and when the mechanical crash of the studio alarm went off some time early the next morning, she found she’d curled her pinky around his.

 

Their routine continued in the same vein for some time.

 

They’d flirt for the cameras and the audience lapped it up.

 

“Say Ricky, Don’tcha think your nickname is kinda like, misleading?” The nurse trilled, bending over the wheelchair to snap a restraint on another husband from the Marriage Maze. She heard whistles from the crowd as the male members of the audience saw a flash of her panties.

 

“Why, Nurse Ansalong, you know I’m called ‘Rest Home Ricky’ so Doctor Cosmo and Doctor Nation’s patients know where they’re going!”

 

“OH!” She bounced back on her sensible nurse shoes, tapping her chin in thought. “Well that makes muuuch more sense!”

 

Ricky grinned big for the camera, his hands planted in his pockets, inclining his head to the Nurse in exaggerated movements. “Why? What did ya think it was?”

 

“Like, I was just confused, ‘cause he sure didn’t give ME any Rest when we got Home last night, Denton!”

 

The audience howled with laughter, wolf-whislting as the pair made their way back to the Hospital set, wheeling their victim through the double doors. 

 

Ricky bumped his shoulder against hers as she pushed the wheelchair through the padded maze of corridors. His eyes flashed with mischief.

 

She could only smile saucily back.

 

In her room...their room, they usually lay down in the blue hued darkness, wrapped in fluffy white robes, too tired to act on much of what they’d insisted to the world they were actually doing to each other.

 

Sometimes she’d awaken well before the alarm sounded, and watched his face in the semi darkness, tracing angular features with the tip of her finger.

 

“Do you want to?”

 

“Of course. It’s...hard to work out if...It’s me that wants to or…”

 

“The Character.” He’d nodded, a flash of disappointment on his face. She hated that she’d made him look like that. She leant across and pressed a kiss to his lips. 

 

“I’m not sure there is a Me anymore.”

 

“I’m not so certain there has to be much of a difference, if we’re being honest.” 

 

There was a wave approaching, the overwhelming abyss of comprehension. Who would they be if the show ended. What was there beyond the roar of a captive audience and inflicting pain on that same audience.

 

That little rush when she tortured the patients in cages and straitjackets?

 

That little burst of adrenaline when he stabbed a needle in to subdue them?

 

The Nurse found she couldn’t bare facing the crash of that wave. She pushed the Intern back onto the bed and frantically pushed the robe off his thin shoulders.

 

“Ricky--”

 

“I know.”

 

He’d pulled her down to meet him, and they drown together.

 

 

 

Months go by. 

 

They continue in much of the same way.

 

“Say Nurse Ansalong, Ya got anything for a jaw ache? Seems I pulled mine last night.”

 

“Of course Rest Home Ricky! I’ve got just the thing!”

 

She planted a big red kiss on his jaw and winked at the camera.

 

“It’s only fair, considering I know just what you pulled your jaw doing last night, stud!”

 

At night the lucidity is dwindling.

 

All they know is that they have each other. 

 

Ricky snaps a shot of his girl twirling just for him (and the late night viewers of Dentonvale).

 

Ansalong crawls into bed with her guy, and turns the lights out.

 

They have each other.

 

They don’t know who they are, but they have each other.

  
  



	2. Chapter Two: Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After the events of the movie, the minions try to make sense of what's happened.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had no intention of writing a follow up, but here we are.

Chapter Two

“Say, Ansalong?”

“Yeah, Ricky?”

“Do you know what just happened?”

“Sure. We got syndication.”

“Yeah but...do you actually know what happened?”

“Nope.” 

The last of the audience had been locked into makeshift cages. Idly Ansalong wondered if this means that the streets are officially empty. She and Ricky had discussed this in one of their hazy end of day conversations. They’d come to the conclusion that the audience couldn’t possibly be the entire town, but as neither of them had actually ever lived in Denton, they couldn’t be sure.

Not that they had any clue as to where they had originally came from, apart from their real accents.

Ansalong was of the opinion the town must be over the audience size of 200. How else could Farley have made enough money to purchase the station if he was only selling to 200 people?

Ricky on the other hand pointed out that the audience changed over time. He recalls faces from previous broadcast days that stopped coming after the Farley deal.

They both found it blood curdling how neither could recall the faces of their own families but they both knew who “Seat J12” was, and how he always sat with “Seat K13”. 

They now sat slumped in the abandoned “Denton Dossier” office. The Doctors had disappeared into the elevated office of Farley Flavours some time earlier, once the broadcast day finally ended. Ricky was draped over one of the office desks, having kicked the remaining detritus of Hapchatt’s paperwork onto the floor. He threw a pencil upwards, trying to get it to stick in the ceiling.

“I don’t get what happened, Ansa.”  
“Of course not Ricky, we never get told anything.” Ansalong watched as the pencil fell onto his chest, her head resting on her arms. “We have one job. Stand there, look pretty, don’t say nothing.”

He hummed and the pencil skidded across the Styrofoam again. “They let Janet get away. After all the trouble to get her there, and they gave her up without so much as a fight.”

“Janet was replaceable, honey. There are girls like that all up an’ down the country.”

“Farley could have just locked Brad up again. Kicked Hapchatt and Wright out, kept Janet doped up.” He grunted as the pencil fell onto his forehead. “It isn’t like the doping doesn’t work. I mean...we’re still here.”

“Yeah but we’ve been here for years. Janet was only here for two days.” Ansalong snorted with laughter as Ricky turned to look at her, letting his head slider to the side. His face was covered with graphite. Licking her thumb, she smirked as she swiped at the mess. “Plus, she wasn’t made for showbiz. Not like us.”

Ricky huffed a small laugh. “Not like us. Too addicted to applause.”

“S’not the only thing we’re addicted to.”

Ricky tilted his chin towards Ansalong and their lips met in a lazy kiss. Ansalong hummed in contentment.

“Fuck, I’m knackered babe.”

“I know honey. So am I. Shall we go down to bed?”

“Not just yet…”

“Wanna talk some more?”

Blinking slowly at her, his blue eyes looking more alert than the rest of him “Would you do the same for me?”

Ansalong let her head rest back onto her arms. “Do what?”

“If I were about to get locked away...and you were offered everything in the world...would you do what Janet did for Brad? Would you give it all up and walk away with me?”

The phoney nurse nuzzled into the crook of her arm, mascara smudge ringed eyes struggling to stay open. “No.”

Smiling sadly back, the phoney orderly leaned forward to press his lips to her forehead. “Me either.”

They knew enough about themselves to accept that.

It was why they couldn’t leave after all.


End file.
